Unhappy Iraqis, leaving US and going back to Syria

Update:   The Free Lance-Star reporter, Amy Umble, has more information in an excellent blog posting on this story here.

How many times!  How many times have we heard over the last year and a half that Iraqi refugees were desperate to get out of Syria?   How many times did AP reporter Matthew Lee, shilling for the refugee industry, harass the Bush Administration to bring more Iraqis to the US?  Now, these families, after only 6 months in the US, want to go back to the Middle East, to Syria no less!

From the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA, describing the trip to Dulles airport last week:

Shamas Jawad woke up groggily in the back seat of a minivan bound for the airport.

“Are we there yet?” the sleepy 3-year-old asked in Arabic.

Awkward laughter followed. The curly-haired preschooler and her family wouldn’t reach their destination for another 36 hours. And then they could face an additional daylong journey.

When the Jawads arrive in Syria, they may find a cheap place to rent. But the government could instead deny them refuge and offer a police escort back to the Jawads’ native Iraq.

Shamas’ father, Muoafaq Jawad, thinks either option would be better than life in America.

He, his wife and five children arrived in Stafford County on Aug. 27.

[....]

They found poverty, unemployment and homelessness here.

After having had their airfare to the US paid by the American taxpayer, they had to borrow money to get back to Syria.

The Jawads were evicted from their Stafford townhouse March 12 and immediately began begging and borrowing money for airfare for all seven family members. They packed their clothes and left for Syria on Thursday.

Making reference to a story we have heard many times, these refugees were told that life in the US was going to be fabulous and that they would have things taken care of.   WHO IS TELLING THEM THIS, AND WHY?

Unable to find jobs during the recession, the Jawads and another Iraqi refugee family both left Stafford on Thursday.

About 85 Iraqis resettled in the Fredericksburg area last year. Most came through Jordan and Syria where, refugees say, someone promised them jobs and aid once they got to America.

“They told us they would bring us to the United States for a better life,” Jawad said.

But he and other Iraqi refugees in America say they were better off as refugees in Syria and Jordan.

The article wraps up by mentioning that more Iraqis will come this year anyway. Duh! You would think that with all my past posts (community destabilization category) on the Alinsky method, I should have noticed.     I just realized that when I wrote about Eric Schwartz’s outfit this morning, Connect US Fund, which promotes the seemingly illogical idea that inspite of our economic downturn it is still a good time to bring refugees, it never occurred to me that refugees in crisis, like these families, could serve as the catalyst to expand the public welfare part of refugee resettlement—you know, the Emanuel/Obama theme about not wasting a good crisis!   We are seeing that welfare expansion already in Utah!

Please go and read the whole article from Fredericksburg, it is fascinating and the comments alone are well worth the visit.  I guess you could say the common theme was Bye! Bye!  And, that is one of the kinder sentiments.

Refugee resettlement responsible for higher rates of TB in Minnesota

Just yesterday I told you about increased numbers of cases of drug resistant TB in states with high immigrant populations, now here is news specific to Minnesota.   On World TB Day (today) we are learning that Minnesota’s cases of TB are rising due to refugee resettlement.

The deadly disease has declined overall in the US since 1953.

“Many people might think that TB is a disease of the past because of its marked decline in the U.S., but it continues to be a problem today,” said Deborah Sodt, manager of the TB unit for the Minnesota Department of Health. Nationwide, the rate of TB disease has decreased more than tenfold since national reporting began in 1953. However, TB continues to be one of the deadliest diseases in the world, killing approximately 2 million people every year.

However, Minnesota’s cases have risen sharply in the last 15 years.

In Minnesota, active TB cases have increased 50 percent in 15 years, from 141 in 1993 to 211 in 2008. In 2007, the rate of TB disease in Minnesota of 4.6 cases per 100,000 people exceeded that of the nation (4.4 per 100,000) for the first time since 1953. Data on states’ TB rates for 2008 was released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, at Trends in Tuberculosis — United States, 2008.  [Here is the CDC report with a handy map showing which states have the worst TB]

Minnesota’s high numbers are attributed to refugee resettlement.

Minnesota’s TB rate is higher than surrounding states largely because of economic and cultural factors related to refugee resettlement. Similar to the trend seen in Minnesota in the early 1900s, when most of the TB cases occurred in newly-arriving European immigrants, more than 80 percent of the TB cases in Minnesota now occur in people who were born in countries where TB remains common and who later moved to Minnesota.

To see how many refugees Minnesota has resettled and from what countries, go to these databases.   Check out your state while you are there.   Minnesota does not have the highest number of refugees resettled, so it would be interesting to cross check the states with the highest number of refugees with the CDC report on TB.  Somone should do an analysis.

Assistant Secretary for refugees job might soon be filled

The ‘In the Loop’ column in the Washington Post predicted yesterday that Eric Schwartz is a likely choice to be Assistant Secretary for Refugees, Population and Migration (PRM for short).  PRM is the US State Department branch that is responsible for admitting third world refugees into the US.   No surprise that he is a Clintonista.

Also at Foggy Bottom, chatter is that Eric Schwartz, former Clinton administration National Security Council senior director for humanitarian aid and a top U.N. human rights official, is the leading candidate to be assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

PRM has been without a politically appointed leader since the term of our former Maryland politician, Ellen Sauerbrey’s expired.  Sauerbrey had been chosen by that ‘bad’ Bush but soon got high praise for working right along with the volags to bring more refugees to the US.  Sauerbrey was responsible for negotiating a deal that will bring 60,000 Bhutanese from camps in Nepal to the US over the next few years.

I asked this when I wrote, more than a year ago, about  Sauerbrey’s “warm send-off” where she was praised by the refugee industry for increasing refugee numbers and helping them bypass security hurdles.

Kind of makes you shake your head, how did we get to the point of praising a conservative for bringing more refugees to America while lessening the security procedures?

So, back to Schwartz.  I don’t know who he is except for some evidence readily available on the internet.  You can read about his plans for a new administration way back in August here.

Schwartz heads up an organization called Connect US Fund, that appears to be a front for a bunch of leftwing funders, here.   It’s the usual crowd—many of the same foundations that I learned long ago also called the shots in the environmental movement.   I know for a fact that these are the very same moneybags that locked up Alaska lands and prohibited oil drilling back in the 1970′s (but that’s another story).

The Connect U.S. Fund was created in 2004 and is supported by a donors’ collaborative which presently includes the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Connect U.S. Fund is managed by the Tides Foundation. The Connect U.S. Council provides policy and program guidance for the Connect U.S. initiative, and is comprised of representatives from each of the five supporting foundations.

And, if you need more evidence about where this group and Schwartz are headed, see this substantively and logically weak article they have posted on their website entitled, “The Economic Crisis Should Not Weaken Commitment to Resettling Refugees in the U.S.”   Bring more refugees it’s good for the economy, they say.

But the question remains. Can a new Administration and Congress make the case for increases in refugee resettlement assistance during an economic crisis? I would say that not only can the case be made, but that it can be made convincingly.

After making NO convincing case, the treatise ends with this.

An economic downturn, far from discouraging support for refugees, should encourage it.

Huh?

The theory here appears to be, that if you say something often enough and forcefully enough, it becomes true, at least in the minds of those who want to believe it.

Update a few hours later:   See the end of this post for a possible explanation of the seemingly illogical thesis that an economic downturn is good for refugee resettlement.

Wall St. Journal: Aid to Africa an unmitigated disaster

The weekend edition of the Wall St. Journal carried a lengthy article entitled, “Why Foreign Aid is Hurting Africa.”    I don’t know what the fallout has been for reporter Dambisa Mayo but if it was anything like Irish Times writer Kevin Myers last summer who said much the same thing, the poor reporter must be under heavy fire as I write.

Here are just a couple of paragraphs that will be sure to inspire you to read the rest:

Giving alms to Africa remains one of the biggest ideas of our time — millions march for it, governments are judged by it, celebrities proselytize the need for it. Calls for more aid to Africa are growing louder, with advocates pushing for doubling the roughly $50 billion of international assistance that already goes to Africa each year.

Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It’s increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.

I wonder how Kevin Myers finally made out after the attacks on him, our coverage of Myers was here and here.

Come to think of it, Myers was a wee bit more graphic then the Wall St. Journal.  Here is Myers:

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

Do-gooders beware, too much aid can be a bad thing for the human spirit.

What would Muslims do without the Ku Klux Klan?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke to a group in Palm Beach the other day, and the fair and balanced reporter made sure to get both sides of the story. Ali is the brave Somali refugee who broke with Islam, became a member of the Dutch parliament, and ended up here in the U.S.

In his introduction to her talk, Winston Churchill, a Palm Beach resident and the British prime minister’s grandson, called her “quite the most courageous woman it’s ever been my privilege to meet.”

Some aspects of her biography have been disputed, and her political views are controversial.

There are two schools of thought in the West regarding Islam, she said. One says that radicals have hijacked Islam and that peaceful co-existence is possible with adherents of the faith.

Ali subscribes to the second point of view.

“Islam is not a religion of peace,” she said. “It’s a political theory of conquest that seeks domination by any means it can.”

In her opinion, European society is in danger of being hijacked by a rapidly growing population of Islamic immigrants, who lack the means or the inclination to assimilate and are supported by Muslim nations in their efforts to undermine their host countries.

But this isn’t really a report of Ali’s speech; it’s apparently a forum on Islam. So:

But John Ederer, imam of the Islamic Foundation of South Florida, said Ali is ascribing the teachings of fringe elements to all Muslims.

“… I can say with certainty that poor Ayaan is a victim of some men who call themselves Muslims but are not in accordance with our 14-century-old legacy of authentic scholarship,” he said in a statement. “It is their lack of knowledge of the ‘fundamentals’ of Islam that would have them interpret a few texts to hold such unorthodox beliefs and practices.

“No doubt Ayaan and the people who affected her thinking can bring you a few verses of the Koran or sayings of the prophet Muhammad to prove their point. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups can do the same with the words of the Bible to convince a commoner of their ideology.”

Ah, yes, that handy old Klan. And those dumb commoners. What the heck is a commoner in the United States anyway?  Never mind, as long as both sides are presented it doesn’t matter.

Iraqi doctors headed home to Iraq in large numbers

Here is a brief article from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that informs us that thousands of Iraqi doctors are feeling it is safe enough to return to Iraq and the government is offering incentives for their return as well.  That is good news because God knows Iraqis generally are wasting their skills working at menial jobs as refugees in the US.

It is short so here is the whole article:

BAGHDAD — Thousands of Iraqi physicians have returned home in recent months as security has improved, a senior Iraqi official has said.

Speaking to Radio Free Iraq (RFI), Kamal Naeem, the general inspector at Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said that about 5,000 doctors have returned to Iraq from abroad and their employment is under discussion at the ministries of health, interior affairs, and defense.

According to Naeem, Iraqi physicians abroad who are unable to return home due to contractual obligations in their host countries have an opportunity to visit Iraq on a regular basis to perform complex surgery and other procedures when necessary.

He also said that his Ministry regularly sends delegates to the countries hosting Iraqi refugees to inform them about the incentives, including cash grants, housing, and employment, offered by the Iraqi government for those who decide to return.

Supporters of Saudi school show their power in Virginia

Although this isn’t an issue we have followed here, I wanted to post it to show solidarity with the handful of activists who sought to halt expansion of a Saudi government school whose practices and policies have come into serious question in recent years.   And, I want to be sure the story is part of our “stealth jihad” category.

This article by Jeffrey Imm posted on The New Media Journal is entitled, “Bullies Pack Meeting in Support of Islamic Institution.”   Hat tip:  Robert.

Imagine facing the overwhelming odds of fighting for equality in Islamic supremacist Saudi Arabia or in the 1960s-era white supremacist Mississippi.

These were the same odds faced by a handful of activists in challenging the estimated 600 supporters of the Islamic Saudi Academy at Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County Planning Commission on the night of March 18, 2009. Many hundreds of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) supporters wore printed name tag badges reading “I Support ISA,” including ISA’s logo containing the emblem of Saudi Arabian government with its two crossed swords.

[....]

At the government public meeting, the Fairfax County government board auditorium was packed by Islamic Saudi Academy supporters beyond capacity with dozens standing in the aisles and corridors, as it sought to show its clout to Northern Virginia’s Fairfax government. It was an event that most Fairfax residents were unaware of, but the Saudi Arabian-backed institution’s supporters were well organized to demonstrate their power in Virginia.

Read it all.  You can’t even take a Bible into Saudi Arabia, imagine if we asked for a Christian school there!

Missing Somali “youth” seen shopping at the mall; maybe, maybe not

Fox News has a new story yesterday that is pretty much the old story we reported here last week that said FBI sources say some of the missing Somali youths are back in town after ostensibly attending terrorist training in Africa.

Yesterday’s story adds this new bit of information:

One month later [January], a 22-year-old man who traveled to Somalia was spotted at a Minneapolis shopping mall, according to Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn. Jamal would not identify the man, but said family members had confirmed that the man had returned from Somalia.

But no one has seen or heard from the man or his family in recent weeks, according to Jamal, who said the man may have been arrested or may be hiding with his family.

This new news may or may not be true, consider the source—Omar Jamal.  Fox News and all these other mainstream news outlets need to find some fresh sources.   I want to remind readers that we have written extensively on Jamal, convicted of immigration fraud in 2005.    He was ordered deported but obviously that never happened.    One reader told me that we don’t deport people to countries undergoing massive civil war, as in Somalia, however, if true, we deported this poor woman to Somalia recently.

Using our search function for ‘Omar Jamal’  I found these posts (pages of them).  Note how often he turns up in all sorts of Somali-related stories from legalizing khat, to our lousy education system, to defending rapists and gang violence, to the Colman/Franken race and of course to terrorism.  Perhaps his most perplexing statements involved the Denver Cyanide death case in August.   That case, now completely hushed-up, involved the cyanide death of a Canadian Somali man in a hotel in Denver in advance of the Democratic National Convention.  He had enough cyanide to kill hundreds.  Omar Jamal jumped in to control the news!  Here is what I said in August:

Now, here is what jumped out at me from this “jumbled” story. Why the heck is the head of the Somali Justice Center of St. Paul, MN involved in all this? Note in these two stories here and here, that Omar Jamal is manipulating the news. He doesn’t know Diri, a Canadian, but is yakking it up with Diri’s family and being quoted authoritatively that Diri was not involved in terrorism, that he was just a schizo, and the lazy mainstream media reporters eat it up!

So, maybe or maybe not, a missing “youth” was spotted at the mall.

Drug-resistant TB on the rise in immigrant communities

Although numbers of cases of active Tuberculosis ( TB) have declined, health officials are worried about the increasing number of cases of drug-resistant TB they are seeing.    Refugees are permitted to enter the US with latent TB. This is one of the problems we have mentioned involving refugees who are not tracked by the volags (government-contracted resettlement agencies) or federal or state government in as soon as 3 months after their arrival in the US.

From Newsmax (hat tip Blulitespecial):

SAN FRANCISCO — Even as tuberculosis rates decline in the United States, drug-resistant strains of the disease showing up in states with large immigrant populations and are becoming increasingly hard to treat.

Researchers are concerned about this trend while funding for labor-intensive disease control programs is being cut in cities such as San Francisco, which has the highest TB rates in the country.

Drug resistance develops when patients start feeling better and interrupt their treatment, giving bacteria an opportunity to develop a defense against the medication.

The picture is grim, and World TB Day on Tuesday is an attempt to raise awareness of a disease that infects about 9 million people, particularly in Asia and Africa. About five percent of those patients are immune to the best drugs. About 2 million die annually.

Immigrant communities in states such as California are particularly vulnerable because many people are foreign born or travel frequently to countries where TB is a greater risk, such as Mexico, India and China

California leads the nation with 2,696 TB recorded cases in 2008_ and with 451 cases of drug-resistant TB identified between 1993 and 2007. About 83 percent of these drug-resistant cases involve immigrants born abroad.

If you are thinking, oh well, that is California, think again.   We began our coverage of TB in immigrant communities when we first read about Ft. Wayne, IN and its financially strapped health department here.   Check out our health issues category for lots more on TB.

Now, I am not saying we are Africa yet, but go back and read this post I wrote last June about the South African ”prison” for drug-resistant TB patients.   What else can be done with these people?

Taxpayer support of refugees will expand if experimental program succeeds

Your tax dollars:

Salt Lake City, Utah is one of the US cities that has had problems with refugees in recent years.  You only need to use or search function for ‘Salt Lake City’ and you will see what I mean.   Now comes news that the volags (federal contractors that do most refugee resettlement in the US) operating in Utah will receive $2 million extra federal dollars to try to get the program under control.

The refugee resettlement program as it has been administered for some time only took care of refugees for about 6 months (time varied somewhat depending on how thorough the agency did its job).    The experimental program in Utah expands that time to 2 years.

The family[Somali family discussed in this article] benefitted from special long-term case management, which starting this month, all new refugees will receive. Thanks to federal dollars, Utah’s resettlement organizations were able to hire a large number of new staff, who will guide and supervise refugees during their first two years in America. The goal is to foster independence and ensure families aren’t overlooked.

This is a massive shift in a system that critics say has previously left many refugees feeling abandoned and neglected. Minimal funding meant staffers were overwhelmed and unable to provide more than basic help.

All three groups [International Rescue Committee, Catholic Community Services and the Asian Association] have expanded staff thanks to about $2 million per year in federal welfare and social service dollars for the two-year experimental program.

It was only a matter of time before these federal contractors asked for and received more taxpayer money.   We have recommended that a greater effort should be made to find private charity to supplement the federal and state funds used for resettling refugees, but alas if the federal printing presses run for AIG of course they would be expected to run for the IRC.

Patrick Poulin (IRC), believes this is the direction refugee programs “need to go.”